1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of optical switches for communications networks and specifically optical switch fabrics.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical communications technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, with transmission systems capable of terabits per second now being deployed. However, advances in switching and routing technology have not been as dramatic, leading to system bottlenecks as signals are converted from optical format to electronic format for processing, before being re-converted to an optical format for onwards transmission.